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Just a note on chain fishing that I feel I should share... I've heard from a few sources that catching the pokemon will break your chain, but just recently I was catching Luvdiscs for heart scales and by the tenth one I happened accross a shiny. Between several catches I also checked the menus and moved items, so I'm pretty sure that none of that affects the chain either.

I didn't know it was 50 steps to reset the radar, I just assumed it had to be 100. That will save me some repels! Pokéradar doesn't agree with me yet but chain fishing does so that's entertaining me for now.

With regards to the patches of grass that appear when using the radar, I was under the impression they had to be of the same kind of shake as the initial one from what it says on the page on Serebii. I didn't realise each patch was different and that "violent shaking"was always better, that will help a lot.

Edit:
I was trying to get to grips with the Pokéradar last night before I went to bed. Usually it's not a good idea for me to do anything when I'm tired but I got the best chain so far, 7! Not quite sure when I'll hit the magic 40 but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually.

I haven't seen any in-depth poke-radar chaining guides posted, so here's the best one I've found. Props to reddit user cpctheman

Spoiler:- Chaining Guide:

During my playthrough of Pokemon X this past week, I found 2 shinies (Quagsire and Absol) in the wild. After I completed the game, I felt the thirst to acquire more and more shinies. I tried the masuda method, got the foreign ditto and everything, however I was instantly bored with it. My grievance with MMing for shinies is that there is no assurance of when you will get your shiny, if you ever actually do; it could be 3 eggs or 3000 eggs. I knew about chaining from previous gens, but never tried it out of fear for its complexity. Chaining can be frustrating, however it is very rewarding, as if you do it correctly, you are guaranteed a shiny.

What is chaining?

Chaining, in simple terms, is the act of encountering a pokemon over and over again using an item called the PokeRadar. For those of you that don't know, you get the PokeRadar after the Elite Four in Professor Sycamore's Lab in Lumiose City on the 2nd floor. The PokeRadar works like this: you use it in some grass and patches of grass around you shake, indicating a pokemon is in one of those patches. The PokeRadar recharges after you take 50 steps.

Why should I chain?

Chaining on its own is very boring, and seemingly unimportant. However, if you are able to chain a pokemon 40 times successfully, certain "shiny patches" will start to show up every few resets of the PokeRadar. These patches indicate a shiny pokemon dwelling in this grass, aka when you enter the grass, you get shiny.

What are the rules/steps to chaining?

While there are no concrete laws to chaining and everyone has their own methods, I will explain the method I have found works 100% of the time for me. It took me a disgusting amount of testing to figure these principles out.
1.
Buy super repels. A lot of them. These will ensure that you do not break a chain of encounters by running into wild pokemon in the middle of chaining. Also, I should emphasize the phrase a lot of them. I usually bring around 200. Nothing is worse than running out of repels at a chain of 20. (I should mention max repels work fine as well, however it is more cost effective to use super repels as max repels only give 50 more steps for $200 more.)

2.
Put a pokemon with moves that have a lot of PP in your party. I would highly suggest a pokemon with 2 moves with 20pp or 1 move with 40pp, as it makes counting much easier.

3.
EDIT: /u/bgw92 says to register the poke radar and unregister any other items, as using another key item breaks the chain.

4.
Find a field of grass with at least 5 patches of grass by 5 patches. It is important to have a large field and this will be explained shortly.

5.
Walk into roughly the middle of the field and use your PokeRadar, making sure you've already used a super repel. Several patches of grass will shake.

6.
Walk into one of the patches of grass, being sure to remember the nature of the shaking. There are two types of shaking, I will refer to them as rough and soft shaking. Rough shaking is, well, rough shaking and soft shaking is the opposite.

7.
If the pokemon you encounter is one that you would like to chain, KO it. This will ensure that the chain continues off of that pokemon. Congrats, you now have a chain of 1. (You can use a notepad to count your chains, but I find it's easier to count with your pokemon's PP.)

8.
After you KO the pokemon, more grass will shake. PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE SHAKING GRASS. This is easily the hardest part of chaining as well as the most confusing. Not every grass will yield the pokemon you previously KO'ed. There are a few rules to making sure the pokemon is the same. 1: The grass must be of the same nature of shaking, ie: if your first grass was a rough shaker, only go to rough patches. 2: Only go to a patch that is at least 4 spaces horizontal or vertical away from you. There is much disagreement among this rule and you may find that another distance works better for you. However, if you're just starting, I would recommend doing everything in a very formulaic fashion. 3: If no patches meet this criteria, simply reset the PokeRadar until a patch works. Do this by running back and forth inside the field of grass, taking care to not run over one of the patches that wouldn't work. 4: If you KO a pokemon in a patch that is on the edge of the field (ie if the grass is not surrounded on all sides by other grass) you must reset your PokeRadar. Many chainers believe that KO'ing a pokemon on the edge of a field is a death sentence for your chain. This is only true if you do not reset after you KO an edge piece. If you neglect to reset, there is a good chance a shaking grass (even if it fits aforementioned criteria) will give a message saying "It seems there is no pokemon here," which will break your chain in a very demeaning manner. 5: When you finally reach a chain of 40, pat yourself on the back and take a bathroom break (it's been stored up for awhile now I'm sure). When you come back, it is unnecessary to chain any more pokemon. Getting a chain of 40 or 70 yields the exact same odds of getting a shiny. What you should do is reset your PokeRadar over and over again until you see a patch that shines. I would suggest having the volume turned on at this point because when shiny patches appear they emit a pleasant sound. You shouldn't be able to miss the shiny patch, as it is made very clear which patch is shiny. 6: Catch the shiny and bask in its shiny glory.

Ways in which a chain can break
1.
Entering a patch of grass that does not have the pokemon you have been chaining.

2.
Entering a patch of grass and having the message "It seems there is no pokemon here".

3.
Leaving the field you are chaining in.

4.
Turning off your game.

5.
Using the roller skates.

6.
EDIT: /u/thekingofnarwhals said he hatched an egg while chaining and it broke his chain.

7.
EDIT: /u/Minkelol said his chain broke by encountering a wild pokemon even when he did everything right. This could confirm a very small chance that another pokemon can show up even if you do it right.

Some rare occurrences and how to deal with them
1.
Sometimes if you enter a patch of grass on accident that does not fit the criteria, you may still encounter the pokemon you were chaining. In this case, you are very lucky. However, next time you may not be so lucky.

2.
"Hey, I accidentally entered a patch of grass that had a different shaking than the one I've been using and I still found the same pokemon!" If you happen to notice when this happens (which you likely won't) you have two choices. Essentially, what has just happened is you have "reset" the type of grass your chain is associated with. This means you could continue the chain with the new grass shaking and everything is fine. However, if you're like me and cannot notice one patch as well as the other, I would suggest just resetting your chain, if it's still a pretty small chain.

3.
After the Elite Four, you may have noticed a certain legendary bird occasionally occurring in wild grass. These guys are unaffected by repels, so many have come to believe that encountering a bird messes up your chain. THIS IS NOT TRUE, PRAISE GOOMY. The legendary bird runs away and has no effect on your chain. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

4.
"Help! The pokemon I've been using to KO the others is out of PP!" Calm down. Using the menus for anything does not break your chain, even if you save. However, saving in the middle of a chain does nothing because when you reset your game a chain is broken.

5.
"My power died!" Sorry, chain broken. Next time pay attention to the lovely notification on the bottom screen when your battery is low.

Well, I think that about covers it! If anyone has any additions, let me know and I shall add the information into the tutorial, giving you credit.

EDIT: Wasn't sure where to put this one, but /u/mansharkcow claims there are actually 3 types of shaking (soft, medium, large) and that serebii says that the more a grass shakes, the rarer the pokemon inside is.

EDIT: /u/HallucinatesTigers found this and this (two videos showing the shiny patch animation/sound)

EDIT: /u/Mouseshy has potentially found an interesting correlation between IVs and Chaining.

EDIT: Going to bed now, will hopefully answer all of the questions that arise when I wake up! Goodnight reddit

EDIT: Hello all, I've noticed a lot of positive reception from this post and I was wondering if you guys would find another tutorial post like this useful. Let me know!

I've been as unlucky chain fishing for shinies as I have using the radar or breeding via the Masuda method. Some people seem to constantly run into shinies, but I'm not one of those people. I have the shiny charm, but so far it hasn't done a lick of good.

FINALLY! After weeks of weeks of chaining I finally got my first chained shiny at chain of 17! W/ highest chain at 36 & 37 for Scatterbug respectively, obviously I dont think I'll ever get to 40 even I think I always do it right.

Anyways, I didnt get shiny Scatterbug I always wanted (which is good since I finally got shiny Vivillon my Jungle pattern thru Safari, and the shiny form is MEH).
I got a Shiny blue Flabebe instead, and was quite lucky since I wasnt really serious when I chained it w/ a rather small area & I often risked taking the edged patches and so on...
But to my surprise, the ting-a-ling shiny patch suddenly popped up, and I quite liked it since its more noticeable this time...

Tried and failed miserably at chaining Furfrou. I try to do everything correctly, but the highest chain I've gotten so far this gen is 11. I think that the flower patches are a nice aesthetic in this game, but I can't tell the difference in shaking in flowers to save my life. I wasn't incredible at chaining in gen IV, but I was at least halfway decent!

Guess I have to stick to fishing and breeding for my shines for now.

Friend Code: 1375-7752-1596
I have a Grass type safari with Oddish, Sawsbuck, and Quilladin. I need most things, though I'm mostly set on Ghost and Ice types.
I have lots of space left for friends, so let me know if you add me so I can add you back!

Quick n00b question here...you can chain fish with the Old Rod, right? I've chained waaaay more than 40 Magikarp now and still haven't gotten a shiny. I just did it in the same spot with goldeen and corphish with the Good Rod. I just need a little moral support here!

Also I just read about having to fish in a corner. My first four fishing chains ended in shiny's and were just on the edge of the pond on route 3. Is there any truth to this corner thing or is it just like holding down and B to turn a pokeball into masterball??

Last edited by willis7928; 9th March 2014 at 3:21 AM.

FC:2363-6962-9516 In game name: Willis

Safari: Tangela, Quilladin, Swadloon. Need any and all safaris please. PM me if you add!

Quick n00b question here...you can chain fish with the Old Rod, right? I've chained waaaay more than 40 Magikarp now and still haven't gotten a shiny. I just did it in the same spot with goldeen and corphish with the Good Rod. I just need a little moral support here!

Also I just read about having to fish in a corner. My first four fishing chains ended in shiny's and were just on the edge of the pond on route 3. Is there any truth to this corner thing or is it just like holding down and B to turn a pokeball into masterball??

You can chain fish with any rod and fishing in a spot surrounded by things gives you more chance to get a bite, but it's not necessary.

Quick n00b question here...you can chain fish with the Old Rod, right? I've chained waaaay more than 40 Magikarp now and still haven't gotten a shiny. I just did it in the same spot with goldeen and corphish with the Good Rod. I just need a little moral support here!

Also I just read about having to fish in a corner. My first four fishing chains ended in shiny's and were just on the edge of the pond on route 3. Is there any truth to this corner thing or is it just like holding down and B to turn a pokeball into masterball??

It took me 92 Magikarp to get a shiny yesterday. Took around 60 for my Luvdisc this morning as well.

Its NOT an easy process if you read my previous posts. And dont dare to say chained shinies in Gen 6 are worthless, I don't read many ppl succesful in chaining w/ pokeradar. Especially you can get only 1 shiny from 40 chain now. So yeah, they're precious...

Spoiler:- Pictures of all my chained shinies:

All there except shiny Plusle (I traded it). And easy chain w/ Static ability pokemon.
Its the only shiny that appeared when the upbeat music played. The rest, except the blue Flabebe are gotten after 40 miserable chain.
I broke 40 chain of Swirlix and Fletchling one time.

Its NOT an easy process if you read my previous posts. And dont dare to say chained shinies in Gen 6 are worthless, I don't read many ppl succesful in chaining w/ pokeradar. Especially you can get only 1 shiny from 40 chain now. So yeah, they're precious...

I've only managed to get a shiny Skrelp from chain fishing. Then I traded it and gave up XD

Well, might as well join the discussion. Alright, so I never chained in DP, but I thought I'd give it a shot since I got my first three shinies in Gen 4 & 5 (a Flaffy, Watchog, and... Patrat. Go figure, right?). Now, I will argue that the distance the grass is from the trainer doesn't matter. I've done a chain of 12 (my biggest chain, BTW) and gone to the square directly next to me multiple times in this chain (Caterpie - BTW). I've been learning as I go, but I agree with a lot of the comments (NOT SPAM!) - there are more than two types of shaking grass, and it definitely pays to have the music turned up (this is from personal experience). I should say, however... that I have gotten no shinies from chaining yet (cue sad music).

But I've been trying for a shiny Smeargle on Route 7 lately and I have a question - does the flowers' color matter? I think it does and I've been keeping to one color just to be safe, but I'm curious. Also, not gotten the strange souvenir yet but... it is odd that its an item that can be equipped rather than a key item... isn't it? I think it should be looked into. Anyways, I also thank the many posters on here for the tips I've received by reading and hope someone can give me an answer on the Route 7 thing.

Oh, one last thing - I can't chain fish. Seriously, I tried for a half-hour and never got more than 2. Is there a trick to it? Should I have a Cradily (ability: suction cups) in the lead of my party? Are there other tricks to chain fishing? Is there any way to chain for a shiny member of the Honedge family? Any help I could receive would be appreciated. Thanks!

I'm sorry if you are offended by the following, but it is my belief;

God created all animals, (including dinosaurs), they were on the Ark, they then went extinct, (No one knows exactly how), over the course of time.

I am a proud Restoration Christian. If you'd like to know more about us, look up the Cane Ridge Revival.

98% of the teenage population does or has tried smoking pot. If you're one of the 2% who hasn't, copy & paste this in your signature.

My first chain fishing fiasco took me 249 catches to get a Poliwhirl. I have caught others with less than twenty. I've only accomplished one Poke Radar shiny, Skiddo.

kingmn2 - The only advice I would give on chain fishing is to try and fish in a corner of the water, such as directly next to a waterfall. I have had chains break for no reason when I don't use a corner, but I've only broke chains by my own error when fishing into a corner.

Oh, one last thing - I can't chain fish. Seriously, I tried for a half-hour and never got more than 2. Is there a trick to it? Should I have a Cradily (ability: suction cups) in the lead of my party? Are there other tricks to chain fishing? Is there any way to chain for a shiny member of the Honedge family? Any help I could receive would be appreciated. Thanks!

Suction Cups lead would really help. And like what Audiomeleska said, go fish in a corner. Or in an area surrounded by rocks.

And unfortunately there's no way to chain Honedge. Your only way to get a shiny one is via RE or MM.

My shinies are not for trade or cloning.
Shinies are not listed in order, for example the last shiny on the banner is not always the latest shiny I've obtained.
Banner 1 made by Light Venusaur, thanks ^_^